The Future of Consumerist

Over the last twelve years, Consumerist has been a steadfast proponent and voice on behalf of consumers, from exposing shady practices by secretive cable companies to pushing for action against dodgy payday lenders. Now, we’re joining forces with Consumer Reports, our parent organization, to cultivate the next generation of consumer advocacy.

Stay tuned as Consumerist’s current and future content finds its home as a part of the Consumer Reports brand. In the meantime, you can access existing Consumerist content below, and we encourage you to visit Consumer Reports to read the latest consumer news.

Business Week's Bob D. Hof has a brilliant dissection of the 'Cyber Monday' campaign, the much-touted farce designed by Shop.org to spur you to purchase lots of holiday crap.

Shop.org member Shmuel Gniwisch, chief executive of the online jewelry site Ice.com, recalls getting an e-mail from Shop.org last year, suggesting that online retailers come up with their own marketing hook to match Black Friday. "The online guys got together and said, 'Let's give people something different,'" he says. "The reality is, we didn't notice anything special" on the Monday after Thanksgiving.

We've personally gotten dozens of calls about 'Cyber Monday' over the last week, mostly from confused print and television editors questioning why they hadn't heard of this massive online retail fiesta. The reason is pretty clear, as Hof explains: for most major online retailers, 'Cyber Monday' isn't the biggest shopping day of the year.

Business Week’s Bob D. Hof has a brilliant dissection of the ‘Cyber Monday’ campaign, the much-touted farce designed by Shop.org to spur you to purchase lots of holiday crap.

Shop.org member Shmuel Gniwisch, chief executive of the online jewelry site Ice.com, recalls getting an e-mail from Shop.org last year, suggesting that online retailers come up with their own marketing hook to match Black Friday. “The online guys got together and said, ‘Let’s give people something different,'” he says. “The reality is, we didn’t notice anything special” on the Monday after Thanksgiving.

We’ve personally gotten dozens of calls about ‘Cyber Monday’ over the last week, mostly from confused print and television editors questioning why they hadn’t heard of this massive online retail fiesta. The reason is pretty clear, as Hof explains: for most major online retailers, ‘Cyber Monday’ isn’t the biggest shopping day of the year.